Environmental Action Alert — November 20
HECA Rally and Public Hearing
Rally 4:15 – 4:45 p.m. with local speakers, Public Hearing 5 p.m. until closing. Three-minutes per person. Car pooling encouraged.
We need many people attending to Support Clean Air, Protect our Water and Support our Farmers. The decision to allow or forbid Hydrogen Energy California (HECA), a Chemical/Energy Plant, will be made by the California Energy Commission (CEC). Two CEC Commission members will attend the November 20, 2013, HECA hearing in Buttonwillow. The Public is invited to offer their comments beginning at 5 pm (3 minutes per person), so let us have many attendees to tell the Commissioners why HECA is not right for Kern County.
DIRECTIONS: Go west on Hwy 58 past I-5 to reach Buttonwillow. At the EAST edge of Buttonwillow is the park. Turn right at the West edge of the park onto Meadow Street. The new Buttonwillow recreation center will be in the park on your right. The hearing is in the Buttonwillow Recreation and Park District, Multi-purpose Facility, 556 Milo Avenue. If you use Stockdale Highway: pass I 5 > turn right/north on Wasco Way for three miles to a stop sign at Hwy 58 > left to Buttonwillow Park > right on Meadow Street to the Parks & Rec building.
If you wish to carpool, we will leave at 3:45 from the old Montgomery Ward building’s SE corner. The building is in a big parking lot west of F Street & north of 30th Street. We need to leave by 3:45 p.m. to cope with heavy traffic.
Our goal as citizens is to give voice to our serious concerns about HECA: \* increased air pollution in the Valley from 450 truckloads daily of New Mexico coal being brought to the site to fire this plant - plus trucks moving inorganic fertilizer. \* diversion of 7500 acre feet of water per year from local farming needs. potential contamination of nearby crops. \* Occidental will pump the carbon dioxide from the gasification into old oil wells to produce more oil.
Comments are encouraged at http://www.energy.ca.gov/sitingcases/hydrogen_energy/ In the right-hand column select Submit e-comment. Fill out the form and write or copy/paste your comments For an excellent recent article, see Chris Romanini's Community Voices on Sept. 10 by clicking on this link: [http://www.bakersfieldcalifornian.com/opinion/hot-topics/x1612517804/Tell-the-CEC-what-you-think-about-being-HECAs-guinea-pig Tell the CEC what you think about being HECA's guinea pig]